Top Rabbi

Chabad’s Krinsky is number one; and 49 more

Mazel tov to Yehuda Krinsky, whom Newsweek named the most influential rabbi in America in its annual list. The Chabad-Lubavitch leader—“the contemporary face of the Hasidic branch”—improved on his number 4 showing in last year’s list. Coming in second is Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Reform movement, who jumped an impressive six spots from last year. (Yoffie recently announced that he will retire in two years.) Rounding out the top five are Martin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Mark Charendoff, of the Jewish Funders Network; and the politically-minded David Saperstein (who was last year’s number one), of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

A special in-the-family pat on the back to Joseph Telushkin, who held steady at spot 15. Telushkin’s biography of Hillel is being published by Nextbook Press in September.

Some more notable winners (and some losers) from the list—which is the brainchild of Sony Pictures’s Michael Lynton and “his pal” Gary Ginsberg, and which is strictly subjective—after the jump.

Shmuley. New Jersey’s own Shmuley Boteach jumped a spot, from 7 to 6.

Big gains from Avi Weiss. The Bronx-based Modern Orthodox rabbi jumped from 38 to 18, on the strength of his controversial granting of the title “rabba” to a female student of his, Sara Hurwitz. Speaking of which …

Women. I count six women on both lists, with the highest-ranking, Ellen Weinberg-Dreyfus of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis, moving up from 18 to 17. Hurwitz is a new addition, at 36. And Sharon Kleinbaum, the rabbi at Manhattan’s Beth Simchat Torah—the world’s largest LGBT-oriented synagogue—held steady at number 25.

Leave your shul, doesn’t matter. In 2009, while Jeffrey Wohlberg was still top rabbi at the venerable Washington, D.C., Conservative shul Adas Israel (where he presided over the bar mitzvah of your humble blogger), he was at 19. In 2010, as president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Wohlberg was at … 19.

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Shmuley: a shame to Chabad. Last year in Facebook he was celebrating hi own “glory” ( some small success in the media). In Yom ha Shoa. He has no shame.

Davidsays:

June 29, 2010 - 8:01 pm

So, Newsweek is now our measuring stick for the greatness of Rabbis. A zah och und a vay!

Shazamsays:

June 29, 2010 - 10:31 pm

I am surprised all that’s mention regarding #1 is ‘leader of the Chabad… movement’, no mention of how many Chabad religious establishments or Rabbi’s are under his wing etc.

It would stand to reason that his Partner/Second-in-command Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Executive Controller (if you will) of the countless Rabbi’s of the Chabad movement, over 4000 of which are in the USA, would be #2, if not somewhere on the list.

Shazam errs in the fact that top mention goes to the top rabbi in the organization. While Rabbi he mentions is certainly very busy in benefit of the organization, he is the top rabbi’s employee and subordinate. AS such he gets praise for his extraordinary efforts, but the credit goes to his superior who had the foresight to to let him loose and bless his efforts.

The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.

I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)

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